Tag Archives: Iran

I think this Sunday Discussion is a very important topic. People are getting tired of the gas prices that are too high. Right now gas prices around this area are around $3.50 a gallon. But many experts think those prices are going to go way up. Many are expecting gas prices to be over $4 a gallon by this summer. And if there is conflict in the Middle East or a hurricane coming up the Gulf of Mexico. The sky’s the limit. Do you remember the movie called Oil Storm that was on TV a couple of years ago? Here is the full movie to refresh yourself.

The movie depicts a major hurricane and war in the Middle East causing a major disruption in the oil supply and causing gas prices to go through the roof. This almost crashed the U.S. economy. Of course this is all portraying a major oil disruption in this country. But we have had similar events. Remember Hurricane Katrina and the gas supply disruptions afterward? And we may get to see what happens if a conflict over Iran starts. Which I hope does not happen.

So what is causing the gas prices to go up. I give you a couple of reasons. One is conflict in the Middle East. Just the talk of bombing Iran is causing the oil prices to go up. Two is the speculators. They are wanting the price of oil to go way up so they can line their pockets with money. This is a very greedy way to make money. Third is the growth around the world. India and China has exploded in economic growth and guess what they need? Gas! When you have more people needing energy around the world. Prices are going to go up. We are in an election year and one of the candidates Newt Gingrich has proposed ways to lower the gas prices. By the way Newt Gingrich will be in Pell City on Wednesday at 2pm at the Pell City Civic Center. And yes I am going there.

I would like to question a couple of things about the gas supply. One is the U.S. exporting a record amount of gas to countries around the world. Why are we doing this? We should be keeping the supply of gas in this country. And this brings me to the second point. Some refineries in the North East are going out of business. The talk is there is not enough refineries in this country to process the oil and now there is talk to shut down refineries. Could it be greed or low demand? Who knows.

So in my beliefs; what can be done to lower the gas prices. Here are some ways. One; we need to drill for more oil. Until we get the network of alternative fuels set up we need to keep up with the demand. And the Keystone pipeline was blocked by Obama. So if Obama does not like the route of the Keystone pipeline through Nebraska; let’s move it around. Because Canada wants to export its oil to us instead of China. Plus we have oil reserves all over the country that can be tapped. So we can get started now! And yes I would make sure it was done the right way to protect the environment.

Another way is to punish the speculators on Wall Street. We have nothing going on in the Middle East right now and the oil price is very high. Something is wrong here. We need to pass laws and increase the supply so the speculation is taken out of the oil prices. Another way is to increase the fuel mileage in cars. Also we can develop mass transit and better communities so people do not have to drive too far to work or school. But here in Alabama mass transit is a joke. Birmingham has some of the highest ratio single car drivers in the world. Mass transit is very bad in the Birmingham metro and is not properly funded. That needs to change.

But here is the ultimate change we need to do. We need to transition off of oil. America has become way too addicted to oil and no one out there has talked about new ways to fuel our cars. Natural gas is one great alternative to fuel our cars. And we need to accelerate development of new ways to keep our cars moving. Batteries and hydrogen can be great new ways to fuel our cars. We can also design our communities better so people do not have to drive to do simple errands. Let’s create areas so people can walk or ride a bike from their homes to the store or to have some fun. We can also say we are addicted to our cars. And this is something we need to change as well.

America is very divided right now on issues from the size of government to what to do in jump starting the economy. But I think we can all come together to solve the energy problem. And who knows; maybe we can solve some other problems too.